Second Chance Dad (9 page)

“I'll bet she is. This looks wonderful.”

Alberta, the woman across the table, gave him an assessing look. “It isn't easy to find a woman these days who knows her way around a kitchen.
And
who has a good job.”

“Mrs. Roberts!” Sophie protested, laughing. “You promised that you wouldn't try to pawn me off on him.”

“I'm only stating facts,” she retorted primly. “In case he hadn't noticed. Isn't that right, Walter? Your granddaughter is quite a prize.”

Walt snorted and took another bite of a hotdog slathered in catsup and mustard. “Independent gal is what she is. And a real good mom, to boot. She don't need someone to bring home the bacon.”

“Thanks, Gramps,” Sophie said drily. She slid a glance at Josh, her eyes sparkling with humor and her cheeks rosy with a light blush. “I guess you'll have to excuse
everyone
, here. This is turning into a sell-Sophie-to-the-single-guy supper, and that wasn't my expectation when I extended the invitation.”

Maybe it wasn't, but she was so pretty in her coral summer top and white shorts that he
wanted
to curve
an arm around her slim shoulders and pull her over for a quick kiss.

Or maybe, a longer one.

Which would probably delight their audience to no end…and would finally satisfy the curiosity that had been building in him for several weeks, now.

Would her soft, expressive eyes close as she savored the kiss, or would she laughingly punch him in the shoulder and push him away?

Alberta began an animated conversation with Walter, while Eli peppered Josh with the latest in formation on Harley Sportsters that he'd found on the internet.

Josh smiled inwardly at the down-home bantering, savoring the companionship and simple beauty of the old man's backyard, with its riotous, fragrant flowers and the scent of fresh cut grass.

He'd missed so much, walling himself away from all the people he knew. Birthdays, holidays, it had all slipped by over the past couple years, despite Toni's repeated invitations to join her family and their mother at every opportunity. And for what purpose? To steep himself in regret? What good was that?

And if it hadn't been for that rainy, humiliating day at the grocery store, he would still be in that deep valley of grief, refusing therapy and any chance to live a full life. Chance—or divine intervention?

Toni had been telling him for years that he was
always in her prayers, so had God chosen this time to intervene?

After he helped clear the table, they all settled back down to a heaping slice of Alberta's blueberry pie, with the flakiest crust he'd ever tasted, and topped with the homemade ice cream Walt and Eli had made earlier in the afternoon.

“It's my romancin' pie,” Alberta said with a chuckle. “It caught my William, first time I made it. Bless his heart.”

“I believe it.” Sophie took another bite, closing her eyes as she savored the taste. “Who could ever let a woman go who could bake like this?”

“This meal was the best I've ever had,” Josh said, glancing between them as he finished the last delectable bite of pie on his plate.
“Anywhere.”

“That's sweet of you.”

“No, it's honest.” He scanned the yard and found Eli swirling a lit sparkler in the air. “Hey, buddy, you and I are doing dishes.”

Sophie lightly bumped her shoulder against his. “You're company. You don't have to do that.”

“But you did all the work and fed everyone. Cleanup is a
man's
job.”

Alberta paused, a forkful of pie halfway to her mouth. “If you hear a man say that, you've got a keeper, dearie.”

“Alberta….” The warning in Sophie's low voice was unmistakable.

“Just stating facts.” The older woman shrugged. “So, Walt, do you want to go catch
Wheel of Fortune
on the TV while these young folks sort things out?”

He grunted in agreement.

Eli set his spent sparkler wire on the edge of the picnic table and dutifully grabbed the platter of watermelon, then followed them into the house.

“He's a good kid,” Josh said as he gathered a stack of plates in the crook of his arm. “You can be proud of him.”

“I am.” She stood next to him, stacking the two empty serving bowls, then tossing utensils into the top one. Her voice turned wistful. “He's had some challenges in his young life—especially losing his dad. It's hard for him to make friends with his peers, but he's my best pal. Someday, I hope all the other kids appreciate him for exactly who he is.”

The sun was dropping lower, sending rays of golden light through the birch and maple trees in the yard that highlighted her auburn hair to the color of flame.

He reached out and brushed back a wisp of her bangs. “Thank you for this evening, Sophie. For including me.”

She tilted her head up to look at him. “The day's not over yet,” she murmured. “We've still got fireworks and sparklers for everyone—and then we start
on the
second
pie. Cherry. And believe me, woe to anyone who doesn't fully admire Alberta's pies.”

Lost in the moment, with everyone else in the house, he just couldn't help himself. He cupped her cheek with his free hand and lowered his mouth to hers for a brief kiss. A crackle of energy instantly sparked through him. “I have wanted to do that for so long,” he whispered.

She pulled back a step, her eyes wide and startled. Had she felt the same zing of electricity? Or was she going to haul off and slug him?

She fumbled with the utensils in her hands, then dropped one. A deep blush infused her cheeks. “I—I'm not sure where this is headed, but my family's comments aside, I—I don't think we should…um…go beyond our professional relationship. It might just…complicate things too much.”

She looked so sweet, so utterly appealing and vulnerable, that he wanted to take her in his arms and convince her otherwise, but she was right.

With more regret than he ever would've anticipated, he nodded. “I suppose you're right, so let's just forget it. I guess…” He smiled, hoping she would smile in return. “I guess it must've been that dose of Alberta's romancin' pie.”

“Then she's the one you should've kissed.” A brief smile flickered on Sophie's soft, soft lips. “But you're right. Let's forget it. Totally.”

But forgetting wasn't going to be easy, after the way she'd briefly responded to his kiss.

And when he looked up and saw the faces pressed against a window in Walt's house, he knew there were three people who weren't going to let that happen.

B
y the time darkness had fallen, the food had been put away and the dishes washed. They'd all come back outside to enjoy coffee and smaller slices of pie, and now Eli was following the lightning bugs flitting low over the lawn.

“I'm turning in,” Gramps announced. “I've seen enough fireworks in my day.”

“Walt,” Alberta protested. “Surely you can stay up a little later this one night of the year.”

“You've seen plenty, too.”

“Walt!”

“Maybe I'll catch some
CSI
re-runs, away from all the skeeters out here.”

“Hhhmph. You could use some of this bug spray easy enough.” Alberta picked up a plastic bottle of repellant on the picnic table and offered it to him, but he shook his head and stomped into the house. She handed it to Josh. “Guess it'll be up to you three to
see how well the town council did with the fireworks this year. I'll just go in and keep him company for a while. Have a good time, hear?”

“Thanks, Alberta,” Sophie said. “But if you still want to watch, you'll be able to see them pretty well from the living room windows.”

Alberta winked. “Don't worry about us. We'll be fine inside, and you might enjoy having a little more privacy.”

Privacy?
Sophie blushed, hoping Josh hadn't heard her. “Really, Alberta, there's no need for you to go inside.”

Patting Sophie's hand, Alberta waggled an eyebrow, then trundled off to the house. “I'll stay just a half hour or so,” she called over her shoulder. “And then I'll be leaving for home. You kids have a great time.”

“She's a nice old gal,” Josh murmured when Alberta disappeared into the house. He lifted a brow, a smile flickering at one corner of his mouth. “Thoughtful, too.”

Sophie rolled her eyes. “I don't know
where
she got that idea. I promise you that I haven't suggested any such thing to her. Ever.”

He leaned back in his lawn chair. “I think it's sort of sweet, her looking out for you like that. Sort of like an elderly cupid.”

“I think her generation believes that marriage is
the ultimate goal in life. That you can't be complete and happy without a wedding license in hand.”

“And you don't buy into that.”

“No. I mean, it's nice having someone to be with. It's comfortable, and it's pleasant. But it sure isn't necessary.”

He angled a look at her and shook his head. “Necessary, no. But there might be some who would disagree with your assessment. It can be more than that. Much, much more.”

At the almost wistful note in his voice, she felt a catch in her heart. “You must have had a great marriage.”

“I was blessed, and I didn't realize how much until she was gone. Julia was a wonderful woman. Warm and thoughtful, with a great sense of humor. I loved her so much…”

“But?”

“I didn't tell her often enough. I didn't do enough for her. I worked long hours and didn't spend enough of them with her.”

“But you're a doctor. She would've known that you'd have long hours.”

“I could've done things differently. And the one thing she wanted more than anything in the world was a child, and we put that off way too long.”

“But she must have been so happy then, being pregnant. She did get to have what she wanted.”

“But not soon enough.” He sighed heavily. “And
that's the burden of losing someone you loved more than life itself. You're left wishing you could do it all over again, so you could do it right. You wish you could say ‘I love you' a thousand times more, or go back and erase the little squabbles and things you shouldn't have said. But it's too late. But of course, you know all of this. You lost your husband, and life hasn't been easy for you, either.”

But while he'd apparently had a wonderful marriage, she'd had gentle companionship with Rob. When she agreed to marry him, had she cheated both of them of the chance to find true happiness? Had he ever regretted his choice?

At the first loud thud emanating from the county fair grounds, Eli came running. “It started!”

“Do you want to sit on one of the lawn chairs? You could rest your feet on the picnic table benches.”

“I wanna lay up here.” He clambered up on top of the picnic table, lay on his back and jumped when a vast sphere of sparkly green and red embers filled the sky.

Josh settled into a lawn chair next to Sophie's and reached across the short distance to give her hand a squeeze…then didn't let go. “Thanks,” he said quietly.

She savored the warmth of his large, strong hand enveloping hers. “What for?”

“Including me. Giving me a chance to be with your family. For making the Fourth of July special.”

“Quiet,” Eli called out, craning his head around to look at them. “You're not watching!”

He swatted at his cheek, and Sophie rose to apply more bug repellant on him. When she settled back in her chair, she scooted it closer to Josh's.

Overhead, the sky lit up with one brilliant display after another. But when Josh shifted and draped his arm around her shoulders, she felt an even greater spark zing straight through her.

“Chilly?” he whispered.

She shook her head. The shiver that had coursed through her had nothing to do with the balmy summer night, and everything to do with the man sitting next to her.

It was just the full moon, she knew. And the blanket of stars overhead, and the array of fireworks lighting up the sky. A romantic moment in time and simple proximity that didn't mean anything at all.

But just for now, she let her thoughts drift as she imagined what it might be like to have a man in her life who had the power to make her pulse race and her heart falter, with just a touch. A man like Josh.

But she had no illusions about the future. He would get better, and he would return to a busy practice somewhere. And no matter what they shared right now, he would never look back.

 

The fireworks display was gorgeous. Probably the best ever, though Alberta and Gramps, who
had found it on a local TV channel, had apparently argued that point until the last brilliant explosion of color lit up the sky during the grand finale.

But the fireworks hadn't held a candle to what Sophie had felt when Josh kissed her, or when they'd later sat under the stars to watch the fireworks. And now she'd had a near-sleepless night to prove it.

Glancing at the clock radio by her bed, she groaned and flopped back onto her pillow.

Had she managed to mask her response well enough?

Had she been cool, calm and rational enough when she told Josh that she had no interest in a relationship, or had he seen through the biggest whopper she'd ever told in her life?

And why, oh, why, had Gramps, Alberta and Eli been looking out the window at the very moment he'd kissed her?

Alberta's knowing look and sly smile before the fireworks had been awkward enough, but Gramps's quiet warning at the end of the evening had felt like a knife to her heart because of the bald truth of it.

Don't forget, honey…passion is one thing, but true love is something again. Don't forget what happened before.

As if she ever could.

It started her first year of college, the first time she'd been away from home on her own. And, oh, how she'd been swept off her feet. Romanced and
teased and showered with sweet notes stuffed under the door of her dorm room.

She'd believed that all of Allen's promises were declarations of grown-up, once-in-a-lifetime, forever-and-after True Love.

But when she discovered she was pregnant, after a single fumbling, embarrassing experience in the backseat of his car, he not only dumped her, but he dropped out of school and disappeared—probably terrified that she would come after him for child support.

She somehow gathered the courage to go home. But her dad had flown into a rage, calling her every terrible name in the book, and had warned her that she wasn't welcome.

Gramps had taken her in, pampered her and worried over her and promised that things would be okay…then grudgingly allowed her to leave when Rob starting coming around and then asked to marry her.

It had been a marriage of friends, really. He'd stepped up in a kind and thoughtful way, and she'd agreed in order to appease her father more than anything else…not that he'd ever relented in his opinion of her.

And so, year after year, she and Rob had soldiered on, united in an effort to raise Eli, but they'd never shared a passionate, storybook kind of love.

Maybe it didn't even exist, except between the pages of a book.

And Sophie wasn't taking a chance on ending up with that kind of emptiness again.

 

With the three-day holiday weekend and heavy influx of tourists flocking in from the Chicago area and the Twin Cities, both Keeley's antiques store and Beth's bookstore promised to be swamped with customers, so the book club unanimously agreed to cancel its Saturday meeting.

Sophie took Eli into town to buy him some new tennis shoes, then drove over to Gramps's place, to clean up any remaining vestiges of the picnic yesterday…only to find the kitchen sparkling clean, fresh coffee in the pot, and Gramps sitting on the back porch with Alberta, reminiscing about the old days in Aspen Creek.

“Well, Eli—what should we do next? Would you like to go swimming out at the lake?”

He shook his head.

“We could go hiking out to Crawford's Mill and back. That's a pretty trail.”

“Naaah.”

“The library?”

He stared out the side window of the car and shrugged.

“Should we see if Cody Mendez wants to play?
Maybe he's at the bookstore with his mom and would like to come over to our place.”

No response.

“Then maybe we should just go home.”

“Can't we go to Dr. McLaren's house?” He swiveled in his seat to look at her. “He could use my help, Mom. He's got the Harley motor torn apart and everything. It's so cool—he's cleaning and examining every piece, which he's real good at because he's a doctor. He's got the wheels off and
everything
.”

“I don't think so.”

“Can't you ask? Please?”

“It's not that simple, sweetheart. He has a life of his own, and has things to do. We don't want to be in the way.”

Eli flopped back in his seat, his arms folded over his chest. “You just don't like him.”

“He's a nice man.”

“But you don't want to go there because you don't like him and he kissed you.
Yuck
.”

“I—” How did she respond to
that?
“I think it's time for us to go home. I need to do some house-cleaning, and you need to clean your room.”

“Mo-o-om!”

“Whiners also get to empty the dishwasher if they aren't careful.”

In the rearview mirror she could see him waver, then his mouth snapped shut.

Why had she ever allowed him to start going out
to Josh McLaren's in the first place? It was like dangling the very thing Eli wanted in front of his face, and then snatching it away. Male companionship coupled with a glorious, fixer-upper Harley had been like trips to a theme park
and
a toy store, all rolled into one.

Yet because of one kiss, she'd felt uncomfortable enough to take it all away. How selfish was that?

“How about this. I'll talk to Dr. McLaren during his therapy appointment on Monday and see about setting up a day so you can go out there one more time. Wouldn't that be nice?”

He bit his lower lip. “One day? Only
one?
”

She flipped on the turn signal and turned up their street. “Be glad—”

She blinked. Eli leaned forward, then shouted with glee. “He's here, Mom—he came here to see
us
!”

She could barely hold Eli back until she pulled to a stop behind Josh's truck. Before she even turned off the motor, he'd launched out of the backseat and raced to where Josh was propped against the back fender of his vehicle reading a book.

She raised a hand weakly in greeting, then leaned against the back of her seat and watched as her quiet, temporarily sullen son transformed into a chatterbox before her very eyes.

If she hadn't taken Eli with her to work that day, he never would've seen the motorcycle. Never would've developed such a case of hero worship. And
he never would've been at risk again, for being hurt by another man who, like Todd, would undoubtedly drop out of his life.

Dear, Lord, what have I done?

 

Eli appeared happy to see him. His mother…not so much. Maybe it had been a mistake to come into town to see them, the day after that unexpected kiss.

But he'd been thinking about the situation ever since and had come to the obvious conclusion that though she'd responded to his kiss, she wasn't going to admit it in the next million years if she could help it. And further, she would likely avoid him like the plague just ought of sheer embarrassment.

So the next move was up to him.

“Howdy,” he called out to her as he slipped the paperback into the back pocket of his jeans and sauntered over to her car. He braced a hand on the roof-line and bent down to peer inside. “Thought I might run into you at the bookstore this morning, but you and your friends weren't there.”

“Cancelled. Holiday weekend.”

“That's what Beth said.”

“She told you where I
live
?”

“Nope. I looked you up in the local phone book.” He straightened and stepped back when she moved to open the door. “I could've called, but I figured it might be better to just stop by. I'm sorry if I offended
you last night at your grandfather's house, so I've come to make amends.”

She stepped out of the car and flicked a glance at her son. “Eli, go to the house.”